the descent into hell is easy
by robbstarkswoman
Summary: Because everyone has a little madness in them and they were no different.


**So I have kinda fallen in love with this pairing. The first time I read the book, I hated them but now they have a place in my heart. This is my first time writing them and I'm sorry if it is similar to other things written about them. Enjoy and review! :)**

**Disclaimer: It all belongs to Suzanne Collins.**

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><p>A little girl meets a little boy in the bread shop one day and then smile at each other before the little boy's mother calls him to her. He has blonde hair and blue eyes and she has dark pigtails and brown eyes.<p>

He goes without a backwards glance to his mother, and that night when they are both eating the fresh bread in different houses they forget about each other.

She is the daughter of a Victor and an apothecary. He is the son of two Victors. They are next door neighbours and they have never noticed each other when they have been play fighting with their siblings, just a few fences away from each other.

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><p>A young girl meets a young boy in the Training Centre. They are seven and lined up against the wall in just their underwear to be looked over and approved for training. She is standing next to him, and trembling. He is standing still, looking rather lazy. The Trainer pretends not to notice when the young boy quickly squeezes her hand and then avoids looking at her for the rest of the day. She stops trembling a little.<p>

She is weak and little and has been nurtured on love from her mother. He is big and strong and has been nurtured with punishments and rewards.

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><p>A girl and a boy spar together in the Training Centre. They are fourteen and are finally learning how to fight others after mastering the weapons and learning how to creep and sneak and intimidate.<p>

She uses knives and he uses a sword and she is quick and darts around the room, flicking her knives at him while he roars in anger and tries to catch her. He can't, and she drops down from the ceiling behind him and has him pinned on the floor with a knife at his throat.

He hates her after that.

She is fast and sadistic and he is a brute and a little unhinged. Her mother dies in an "accident" the following day and his brother dies in the Games that year. They aren't children after that.

Two teenagers sit down at the same table in the cafeteria at the Training Centre. They are sixteen and slowly starting to lord over the others who are training to become Tributes.

She flirts with his best friend and he sits there and glares at his food before leaving quickly and dropping the food in the bin. He tells himself he does this because she acts as if she is so much better than him. He's lying. She continues to talk to his friend and smirks a little more because she knows that she is.

She is a confident and a slut and he is jealous and a loose cannon. She sleeps with his best friend and he "accidentally" hurts him at their next sparring lesson.

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><p>Two volunteers shake hands up on the stage at the Reaping. They are eighteen and thirsty for the honour and thrill that the Games will give them. They know only one will come out.<p>

She walks through the doors into the justice building and is stopped by his hand grasping her wrist. He slams her into a wall and breathes into her ear "I'll enjoy killing you." She lets out a seductive little chuckle and pushes him off her, walking into her room and shutting the door with a slam.

He is ready and promises his parents he will win. She is ready and sits alone in her room until their escort arrives to put them on the train. He sees the tear stains on her dress as they sit down.

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><p>Two Tributes stand in a chariot waiting to be pulled into the city. They are ready and waiting for their mentors to start getting them sponsors.<p>

He nods at her, and she nods at him and maybe they have actually broken their vicious cycle of refusing to let the other become ingrained in their souls (truth be told, they have and they both know it). A glint of fear is in her eyes and she is almost trembling and suddenly they are the little boy and girl on their first day at the Training Centre and he squeezes her hand quickly. She sneers at him and plots what she will do to him back in their apartment because she does not want to be touched by him. He does not look back at her, but instead looks at the other Tributes and smirks as a blonde girl waves and winks at him.

She is angry and a little confused and he is cocky and planning how to makes some alliances. When the pair from District Twelve come down and everyone is looking at them, they glance at each other and nod as they both realise they are feeling the same emotion : hatred.

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><p>A young man stands at the door to a young woman's room and knocks softly before entering. He is halfway through the door when a knife slams into the wall beside his head.<p>

She is sitting on the bed, wiping her face and gives him a cold stare which he returns.

He mutters his apology and leaves before slamming a fist in the wall and walking back into the room. He leans against the wall and tells her that their mentors want them to work together when they are training. The response he gets is silence as he walks out the door and walks into his own room.

She is alone and afraid and he is confused and losing his cool. And so they go into training, and show off their skills and learn how to tie ropes and sit with the other careers.

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><p>A young girl comes out of the shower and sees a young man staring at her from the corridor. He brushes past her and chucks her his shirt, telling her that no one wants to see her naked and she pulls it over her head quickly, scurrying out.<p>

He slams the door and they avoid looking at each other for a day and do not speak to each other unless instructed to by their mentors. The fact that he looks so handsome during his interview registers in her head before she realises that they will each try to kill the other before the Hunger Games are finished. The fact that she looks so beautiful infuriates and captivates him over their last days in the Capitol and he pushes the thought that at least one of them will die out of his head.

She keeps flashing into his mind, pushing any thoughts of the blonde District One Tribute from his head and she wears his shirt to bed because it smells of safety. They know they shouldn't, but they stop thinking about killing each other until they have to.

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><p>The night before the Games a young woman lies crying in her bed as a young man stumbles down the hallway towards his room. He is only slightly drunk, but has forgotten where his room is and so goes into hers and falls onto the bed beside her.<p>

She sits up and he does the same, his head clearing as he realises that she is in her underwear and he is in her room.

"What are you doing in my room?" She sneers, jumping out of bed and pulling a large t shirt over her head. It is his, he realises. She seems to realise it a moment later and blushes. He just grins his infuriating grin and lies back on her bed with his hands under his head. It makes his muscles look impressive, he thinks.

"Thought I'd pay you a visit." He says, sitting up and taking his shirt off before crossing the room towards her.

He is menacing and has a glint in his eye that she has seen once before.

"Don't," she whispers and he sees her tremble and so he pulls away. Because this teenager has seen trembles and he has always tried to stop them. His sister, his mother and now her.

They stand there awkwardly, and then he asks why.

"You slept with my best friend. Why are you not willing now huh? I'm attractive." He says smugly.

And then for the first time, she crumbles.

"Because he raped me. And I pretended that I went along with it! No one would have taken me seriously if I couldn't have stopped him and I would have been kicked out of the Academy. I need to win."

He reels back, because his best friend would not do that. But then again, he would. Because that is what they do. They get what they want, when they want.

And for a moment, the cold, callous killing machine disappears, and the young boy who held her hand and smiled in the bakery comes back. Because that hasn't disappeared over the years, just been shoved into the back of his mind as the man his mother and father wanted him to become emerged.

He scoops her up and carries her to the bed and holds her as she sobs into his shirt.

She has always just been a lonely little girl who saw her mother die and her father kill himself and just wanted to make her District proud. The tough exterior was just an act and it is one that only he will get to see through.

In the morning they pretend it never happened. Cold, callous Cato is back, and sadistic, cruel Clove is there to stay. And they are ready.

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><p>A man and woman who have killed stare at each other in the cornucopia. She has blood on her cheek and his eyes are the darkest she has seen them.<p>

The others are laughing at something outside and she looks out before finding all the knives and getting what she wants out of the containers. He keeps staring at her.

"What?" She snaps. He has always unnerved her, and she is only beginning to realise this.

"Well done out there." He says, before gripping his sword tighter and getting some more weapons.

She smiles down at her knife in her hand and nods.

Then the prissy Glimmer girl comes in, and Cato is back to being the ruthless mercenary and Clove is back to being the creepy one.

She is alive and he has adrenaline pumping through his veins. They want to do more killings.

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><p>Cato runs for Clove and pulls her up as the tracker jackers swarm around them. Glimmer is screaming somewhere behind them and he is starting to see purples and blues and reds in front of him and she is stumbling along, swatting at the wasps before falling into a lake. He falls in after her and then they pull themselves up onto a bank, panting.<p>

She whispers "Thank you," and rolls into him before falling into oblivion and he nods and pants some more before doing the same.

He is the hero and she is grateful and when they wake up they will start to work together but for now, they will sleep.

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><p>A young man kills another tribute and smells the blood on his sword, laughing manically. A young woman looks at him for a moment and wonders where this unhinged man came from. As there are less and less of them he is becoming more irrational, more chaotic, and crueler.<p>

She kills with her knife and cuts intricate patterns into their skin because there is nothing worse than a quick killing and it is all she was taught to do. Make it hurt and make it beautiful.

He wakes up in the night. It is always the same nightmare. His brother killing him with an axe, his father beating him until the only unbroken bones in his body are his spine, skull and legs, his mother whipping his younger brother and his younger sister crying and trembling on the ground as his uncle storms out of the house one night.

He is cruel, because that is what happens to boys like him.

She stares at him over the fire and wonders how he can be kind one minute, and then heartless the next. She may enjoy hurting her victims, but she is still a girl, wanting to be loved by someone. She has not been shown any love since her family died and she misses it and fills the hollow with taunts and harsh thoughts.

She is cruel, because that is what happens to girls like her.

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><p>A young man glares at the District One male tribute as the young girl smiles at him and walks beside him.<p>

It is not because he's jealous. Okay, it is. But Cato is never jealous and he tries to push it away.

He can feel the fissures in his mind, as he immerses himself too deep in the game and lets his hatred wash over him and he knows that he is slowly losing control. The only time he is not feeling hatred is when she is standing next to him and him only. And he doesn't know why.

She looks back at him quickly and winks, letting him know that they are still a team. Not that it will matter much longer, when there are only five left and it is every man for themselves. But there is still Marvel, and the District Five girl, the weak Three boy and the girl and boy from District's 11 and 12.

She thinks of the Girl on Fire and the pathetic little lover boy weakling and her blood curdles.

She knows that she is losing herself to the Games, and is becoming more and more like Cato and she wishes that she could go back to the time when she had a mother and a father and a little kitten and a home.

He is waiting for the right moment, and she is eager to cut someone up and they grin manically every time the cannon booms.

And then he is snapping someone's neck and she is grabbing his arm and looking into his eyes and telling him to calm down.

He is forgetting things, and coming out of blackouts with her looking fearfully at him and he is seeing blood on his hands that he can't wash off. She is hearing noises in the dark and each time she kills her mother's agonised screams reverberate in her brain.

And then they are lying next to each other at night, huddled in the same sleeping bag and clutching each other tightly. She is his salvation, and he is her rock and they wonder how this happened, because they are meant to care only about winning and killing and now they care about each other, and forget that only one can win and one of them must die.

She is embarrassed and he watches her out of the corner of his eye and admires how she hunts and carries herself and they slowly start selling bits of their soul to the other instead of the games.

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><p>The boy and girl find each other when Templesmith's voice comes over and tells them that there can be two winners.<p>

She is up a tree, flinging a knife at a squirrel, and he is eating a cracker on a rock in a secluded piece of forest, and for a little while they are not killers. They are teenagers with hope and she calls out to him and he races off to find her.

And then she is in his arms, and she is clawing his skull and he is pulling her closer to him and their lips are on each other's lips and they are happy for a moment.

And then there is a knife at his throat and she is whispering "I could still kill you."

His hand wraps tighter around her throat and he smiles menacingly and replies, "So could I."

Because the little boy and girl who smiled at each other have been practically sold into the Games and won't come out for fear of being slaughtered.

They are closer now, and maybe if they had a little more time, or they weren't Tributes they could fall in love. But these are the Games and they do not have more time.

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><p>Two people standing on the precipice of true affection for each other fight in the night and it ends with the girl storming off towards the cornucopia and the male throwing his sword and fist into a tree.<p>

Because suddenly, the little boy has peeped his head out of his hiding spot and the madness within Cato has started to disappear. Maybe it is because he has not had to kill anyone for a couple of days. This new, tender Cato does not want to go the Feast.

Clove does. She is still eager for the killing and although she likes Cato, she likes blood and knives and screams more.

So she goes and he sits moodily on the rock until he hears her screaming his name.

She is screaming and he is running and for once in their lives they feel the fear of death.

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><p>A young man reaches a young girl too late. She is trembling and blood is seeping out of the dent in her head and her eyes are going glazy. He picks her up and realises he is crying and he holds her close to him.<p>

He pleads for the first time in his life.

"No, Clove. Stay with me. Don't go. No, stay with me. We'll get through this."

She registers that his voice is anguished and feels something wet on her face. His tears.

This time, like all of the other times he cannot stop her trembling and as she struggles for breath he feels his heart breaking.

"I could have loved you." He whispers to her and she smiles.

He grabs her hand and holds it to his face and leans down and kisses her lips.

"I don't want to die Cato." She tells him feebly.

He shakes his head and swallows.

"You're not gonna die Clove. You're just going to sleep and then you'll wake up and we'll be together, in a meadow playing with knives and catching prey and we'll be alright."

She almost smiles at this and he notices that there is a pool of blood surrounding her and she grabs his hand and squeezes it just like he did to hers whenever she was scared or nervous.

And then she dies and the cannon booms.

He closes her eyes and kisses her forehead and stands up, grabbing the knife she was going to use to kill Katniss Everdeen and then he leaves.

The fissures in his mind are more pronounced and he can hear her laughing cruelly and his mother and father yelling and the world goes black and white as the demons come out to play.

The little boy from the bakery that was hiding within him has been flushed out and killed along with her and now he is murderous and ready to kill. Cato is no longer, instead he is fully the machine he was meant to be.

His sanity died with her and he stalks into the long grass, ready to maim and torture as the souls he killed come out into the open and taunt him and the world he sees is filled with creatures that are going to kill him if he does not kill Thresh first.

She is dead and he is laughing as he twirls the knife in one hand and grips his sword in his other hand. They are no longer and the last thing he realises before his rage overcomes him is that revenge is deadly and insanity feels good.

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><p><strong>Please review and favourite! :)<strong>


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